Secrets in the Box

There is a long, straight ribbon of road that cuts through the miles and miles of California desert from Susan's Hemet to Shana's Big River.  An ocean of desert.

Shana and her father on one shore...

Shana Thomas: I know my dad couldn't have killed my mom.

... Susan and her memories of her mother on the other.

Susan Waller: I said, we've got to do something. He's getting away with murder.

Early on the morning of June 17th, 2008, Detective Greg Myler and his partner drove that desert road to the motorhome in Shana's back yard.

Det. Greg Myler: Shana came outside and-- questioned us as to why we were there--

Keith Morrison: "Who are you?  What are you doin'?"

Det. Greg Myler: Exactly.

Keith Morrison: Did she have a pretty good idea just by lookin' at you?

Det. Greg Myler: Yes.  She wasn't happy.

Undeterred, the detectives knocked at the motorhome.  Kirkup invited them in.  Said he'd be happy to answer their questions. The detectives turned on their digital audio recorder --

Detective Alexander: Today's date is June 17th, 2008, it's approximately 930 hours, i'm in Big River, California with Detective Myler . . . 

The three of them.  Now inside the cramped motorhome.  The very same motorhome in which Robert and Janet had been traveling when she disappeared.  And if it can be said that an inanimate object can keep a secret, then the secret of whatever happened to Janet is in the motorhome.  The same secret detectives so wanted Robert to reveal.  Will the motorhome now bare witness to the final act in this story?

Keith Morrison: What did that place look like by the way?

Det. Greg Myler: It was very cluttered, very dirty.  He had been smoking non-stop as we-- we spoke to him.  He went through six or seven packs of cigarettes. 

Through the brackish haze, the detectives set about their first task: make him comfortable.

Det. Greg Myler: What's your favorite place?

Kirkup: Favorite place? Hawaii.

Det. Greg Myler: I know you didn't drive the motorhome around there (laughter). We let him tell us his story-- and we listened to him very intently.  

Kirkup: I don't know where she is.  The last time I saw her was out in New York State. She, she left me. I didn't leave her; she walked away.

Keith Morrison: Is there is a signal or something? When do you change?

Det. Greg Myler: Once we felt that he was comfortable with us, we started applying the pressure.

Det. Greg Myler: You actually admitted that your wife was dead and it wasn't an accident and you're the person responsible.

Finally, the accusation they had come to make.

Det. Greg Myler: Bob, you killed her, we know you killed her, I don't know why we're having such a difficult time with you coming clean.

But Kirkup refused to break.

Kirkup: You know, it just goes against my better judgment to say I did something that I didn't do.

Det. Greg Myler: We tried to wear him down through the interview.

Keith Morrison: And tried and tried and tried.  How long did this go on?

Det. Greg Myler: For six hours.

Det. Greg Myler: We all know you killed her.  We all, Bob, Bob, you know you killed her too.

Keith Morrison: And still he wouldn't confess.

Det. Greg Myler: No.  No.  He-- continued to deny his involvement

Kirkup: You know, I don't know what else to say. I mean, I know what you'd like me to say, but I can't do it. Based on my inner thing about not confessing to something that I didn't do.

Det. Greg Myler: We were feeling a little bit defeated.

Done.  Defeated.  Maybe he really was innocent. But Detective Myler had one more card to play.

Det. Greg Myler: Shana was a very important piece to this puzzle.

Kirkup: I had a good relationship with Shana, but the other two you guys already know about. And Shana is the only one that believes me.

Det. Greg Myler: We-- told Robert-- that we were gonna go talk to his daughter, Shana.

Keith Morrison: How did he react to that?

Det. Greg Myler: His eyes got very large.  His mouth dropped open.

So they left the motorhome and walked to Shana's house. And they took with them that box -the one the other sister, Sherry, started all those years ago... Before she passed it on to Susan, who put it in a closet, then made it her life. And gave it to detectives, who now, finally, carried it here, to Shana.

She, for the very first time, saw the evidence  implicating the father who's story she had been living with. And had so ardently believed.

Keith Morrison: But as she read the file, what happened?

Det. Greg Myler: She cried for a long time.  And-- she thanked us.  No one had let her read the file prior to that because she was always a defender of her father. 

And so now they had a request.  Perhaps the most difficult one Shana had ever contemplated.

Det. Greg Myler: We told her she was the key to getting her father to confess to what he did.  And that we needed her help.

Now it was Shana's choice.  If she refused the detective's request, Robert Kirkup would remain a free man.  If she cooperated, she might - or might not - finally learn the truth about her mother. Now or never.

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